Introduction
Newcomers to Canada include persons of refugee backgrounds. This class of immigrants are sponsored by individual families, private organizations or by the government of Canada itself in order to come and settle here. Many of the schools in Winnipeg are currently experiencing an influx of children who belong to this group of immigrants and are working hard to cater for their educational needs. The aim of this paper is to reflect my personal reaction to the topic of social devaluation within the context of the experiences of newcomers to Canada whom I believe constitute a socially devalued group. The specific focus for this paper is based on a personal witness account of the experiences of Eritrean and Ethiopian newcomers to Manitoba with whom I interact regularly in trying to assist them to overcome the on going crisis and challenges that they experience in their lives as members of a socially devalued group. The following couple of paragraphs are a brief digression from the main topic at hand in order to introduce my self and some of the community work that I am involved in.
I am actively involved, both personally and through the local Eritrean community in Winnipeg, in assisting refugee newcomers during the early years of their settlement in Manitoba, I work mostly with those from my native country Eritrea. Professionally, I have recently been certified as a teacher of high school Mathematics and Computing and I am currently employed as a Substitute teacher by the Winnipeg School Division.
On an individual level I support Eritrean refugee newcomers in areas including that of finding accommodation, arranging for moving and transportation, personal help with translation and also helping helping them during crisis situations such as eviction, accidents and health problems that newcomer families often find themselves in. At an organizational level, I have assisted the Manitoba Occupational Health and Safety center to produce Health and Safety in Manitoba workplaces video in Tigrignia, one of the official languages in Eritrea. In addition, I have translated all their informational pamphlets (some 20 pages in total) in to Tigrinia so that it can be accessed by newcomers with low language proficiency. In addition, I work with the Manitoba Multicultural Health Resource coordinator at the Winnipeg based Sexuality Education Resource Center in in translation and review panel to make some of the center's educational resources appropriately accessible to newcomers from Eritrea and Ethiopia. At the school level, I work as one of my school division's translators for Eritrean newcomer families during school intake meetings and teacher parent conferences. And recently, I have collaborated with a number of EAL teachers in my school division to translate school related information in to Tigrinia so that they can be sent out to families of newcomer children from Eritrea. New comers to Canada who fall under the refugee class of immigrants often belong to visible minority ethnic groups, they are poor, unskilled or under skilled ( having qualifications that often are not recognized by Canadian labor market), have no or little language skills in of Canada's official Languages and some times are physically, emotionally or psychologically impaired. Such factors render members of this group to be socially devalued in a way that risks exacerbating their vulnerability to life threatening situations. All the individuals, whose story is told in this paper, are personal acquaintances of myself and I have been involved in one way or another during their ordeals. However, for the purposes of this paper I will not be using their real names and other identifying elements may be disguised as needed. In the following sections, I will provide formal definition of Social Devaluation and a brief explanations of my interpretations with regards to the concept of social devaluation. This would be followed with a section on my personal reaction to social devaluation with in the context of several tragic incidents that have taken place in the lives of a number of newcomer individuals that I had witnessed. This would hopefully demonstrate how newcomers are: relegated to low social status, rejected , encounter social and physical distantiation, are exposed to involuntary material poverty, have their lives wasted and suffer from the risk of brutalization and death making. The final section of this paper would include a conclusion summarizing the key points discussed in the paper. As far as possible, deliberate effort will be made to avoid judgment on the roles played by any organization involved. Definition of Social Devaluation
The process of social devaluation is formally defined around negative perception of an individual or a group on account of being different from others in such a way that such difference is considered significant by a majority or a ruling segment of society. As such, the difference is negatively valued and hence the group or individual with such an attribute is socially devalued.
The negative values attached to certain forms of differences, hence can be interpreted as: where as the valued party earns respect, the devalued party is disrespected, where as the valued party is considered important, the devalued party is considered unimportant, where as the valued party is afforded opportunities, the devalued party is denied the same and so forth. In the context of the discussions in this paper, the set of attributes that are associated with newcomers to Canada who fall under the refugee class of immigrants include: Impairment, poverty, lack of desired skills and lack of linguistic proficiency in Canada's official languages. As the following section would demonstrate, this devalued group often ends up missing out on critical social services, skill development opportunities and personal and family well-being. Personal Reaction to Social Devaluation
The following stories of personal tragedies speak volumes about the common life experiences of devalued groups in society. Often times racial discrimination or prejudice are the principal factors blamed for the suffering of devalued grouped that involve visible minorities. The fact that the concept of social devaluation is about the devalued party more than anything else makes it possible to appreciate the fact that devaluation, as a dysfunctional perception, is carried out by an intersection of groups outside of the devalued party in society. It is not only the institutions, schools or government agencies that the blame rests. Rather the family, ethnic and religious communities that the devalued party belongs to and individual social circles that they associate with have all some responsibility to bare. Humiliation of a disabled refugee newcomer who had to travel by crawling on the street for lack of a wheel chair A few years ago, in 2006, an Eritrean refugee who was privately sponsored by a family claiming to be his relatives, and is an amputee in both legs was discovered crawling across the street trying to travel to the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration council (Welcome Place) to seek an assistance. I was later Introduced to the gentleman, who will be referred to as Hassan here, to learn that he was unaware that his sponsors were obliged to cover for his expenses in order to to acquire a wheel chair and that it was unacceptable in Canada to be crawling in the street like that. He had barely spoke any English and was clearly made unaware of his rights. What is most surprising was though, the fact that he had passed through the airport without hardly anyone being concerned enough to investigate his situation. Tubal ligation procedure administered on a refugee newcomer mother without the necessary diligence to have her understand the implication of such a procedure Helen is a mother of four healthy young children. She came to Canada from refugee a camp in the Sudan and she is originally from war torn Eritrea. She arrived to Canada under government sponsored refugee class immigration with her husband and three children as a pregnant mother. When Helen entered labor she did not know who to call and dialed 911. She was taken to the Health Sciences Hospital's maternity ward to deliver a healthy baby boy. However, what had later became an issue of controversy was that despite her poor language skills, it was claimed that the physicians, based on her 'consent' administered a tubal ligation procedure for which she now claims she had not fully understood the implication of such a procedure meant that she would was not going to be able to conceive again. I had taken part in a failed mediation effort to broker peace with her husband as the issue had later caused a serious rift within her family. This example shows that most newcomers, as a devalued group, find themselves having decisions made for them with little or no regard to according them the opportunity to make a fully informed choices. Even though the professionals involved may have their reasons for taking this action, the very fact that Helen had to relay on a 911 call and deliver her baby alone speaks volumes as to the rejection as well as social and physical distantiation that are often life defining situations for a socially devalued individual. A teenage refugee newcomer shot dead outside a 'drug den' in Winnipeg's downtown neighborhood barely four years after his arrival to Canada, having found himself entangled in a deadly gang war This case is perhaps the most profoundly discomforting for me to talk about. I have known this family and their teenage son for some time prior to a tragic incident. I had also happened to be the main liaison between the police and the family following the brutal killing of their teenage son who was caught up in a gangland turf war. The boy, whom I would refer to as Peter, was enrolled in a junior high school in downtown Winnipeg school where the catchment area is known for violent gang related incidences. The school that Peter attended had placed him in a Special Education classroom few months before his fatal encounter. I also happen to substitute in that classroom from time to time. It is clear to me that a number of the students in that classroom are initiated into the underground gang life. Peter started to change his behavior and habits dramatically. His parents, newcomers themselves, could not assess the situation due to their lack of awareness about the inherent dangers that are present in such deprived areas. Peter started to miss school and soon began to skip going home altogether. As his parents watched dumbfounded and in horror his escalating misbehavior, in a matter of few months he had gotten himself from a studious and well mannered young man into a behaviorally disturbed teenager repeatedly getting in trouble with the law. In the summer of 2004, three and half years since Peter's arrival to Canada he was found fatally shot and staggering towards a house, which was known to the police to be a 'drug den' place, soaked in his blood. He died before arriving at the local Health Sciences hospital. Due to my closeness to the family, especially after the incident, I am aware of some of the details of the police investigation results into his killing. The issue attracted very little media attention and four of the perpetrators had eventually walked out free after the court hearing and one person had been sentenced to four years in jail minus time served and a chance of parole following his entering of a plea bargain. It is distressing to imagine how incredibly hard it is for the devalued party to get natural justice as we come to know it. The police investigation had essentially concluded that despite a confession and witness statement, they simply did not have strong enough evidence to go to full trial. A community church across the other side of town After many years of worshiping in various different churches that bore some commonality with the traditional Eritrean Coptic Orthodox church, Eritreans in Winnipeg have finally managed to purchase their own church building that opened its doors in late 2007. The church is named ST. Micheal's Eritrean Coptic Orthodox Church. It is located in the St. Vital neighborhood of the city of Winnipeg where many of Manitoba's Eritreans live. The choice of location for the new church is, however, rather puzzling. For instance, most of the Eritrean community members who live in the St. Vital area have a mortgage, professional jobs, at least one family car and have been in Winnipeg for a long time. On the other hand, most of the Eritrean community members who live in the downtown area have little or no educational background, low paid employment, use public mode of transportation and are mostly newcomers or some have arrived long time ago but with significant disadvantage that limited their social and economic progress. If the church was intended to serve the community at large, one would expect it to be located closer to those with no transportation and be easily accessible by those in disadvantage. The reality is, however, the church is located too close to those with personal transport and too far for those without. This is clearly illustrative of the fact that the process of social devaluation penetrates deep into the fabric of social organization. Conclusion The newcomers to Canada include persons of refugee background who are sponsored to come to Canada through various governmental or non-governmental agencies. This group of individuals are often poor, with little or no recognized skills and poor language skills. These attributes are generally negatively valued by western society at large as well as with in local social network that individuals in this group belong. The concept of social devaluation doesn't institutionalize the problem but rather focuses on the actual life experiences of the devalued individual themselves. Where as it is easier to identify some demographic boundaries for issues of discrimination and prejudice that are common experiences of people from aboriginal or the visible minority background, social devaluation penetrates far deeper into the fabric of our social organization. And, hence it defines a one to many relationship that has the devalued individual or group on the one hand and a system of social forces working to undermine them on the other. Currently, schools in Manitoba are enrolling an increasing numbers of children from a newcomer refugee homes. It is high time that clear and coherent policies are drawn to make effective provisions to these children that takes into account their strengths as individual learners and their struggles as members of a socially devalued group.
Newcomers to Canada include persons of refugee backgrounds. This class of immigrants are sponsored by individual families, private organizations or by the government of Canada itself in order to come and settle here. Many of the schools in Winnipeg are currently experiencing an influx of children who belong to this group of immigrants and are working hard to cater for their educational needs. The aim of this paper is to reflect my personal reaction to the topic of social devaluation within the context of the experiences of newcomers to Canada whom I believe constitute a socially devalued group. The specific focus for this paper is based on a personal witness account of the experiences of Eritrean and Ethiopian newcomers to Manitoba with whom I interact regularly in trying to assist them to overcome the on going crisis and challenges that they experience in their lives as members of a socially devalued group. The following couple of paragraphs are a brief digression from the main topic at hand in order to introduce my self and some of the community work that I am involved in.
I am actively involved, both personally and through the local Eritrean community in Winnipeg, in assisting refugee newcomers during the early years of their settlement in Manitoba, I work mostly with those from my native country Eritrea. Professionally, I have recently been certified as a teacher of high school Mathematics and Computing and I am currently employed as a Substitute teacher by the Winnipeg School Division.
On an individual level I support Eritrean refugee newcomers in areas including that of finding accommodation, arranging for moving and transportation, personal help with translation and also helping helping them during crisis situations such as eviction, accidents and health problems that newcomer families often find themselves in. At an organizational level, I have assisted the Manitoba Occupational Health and Safety center to produce Health and Safety in Manitoba workplaces video in Tigrignia, one of the official languages in Eritrea. In addition, I have translated all their informational pamphlets (some 20 pages in total) in to Tigrinia so that it can be accessed by newcomers with low language proficiency. In addition, I work with the Manitoba Multicultural Health Resource coordinator at the Winnipeg based Sexuality Education Resource Center in in translation and review panel to make some of the center's educational resources appropriately accessible to newcomers from Eritrea and Ethiopia. At the school level, I work as one of my school division's translators for Eritrean newcomer families during school intake meetings and teacher parent conferences. And recently, I have collaborated with a number of EAL teachers in my school division to translate school related information in to Tigrinia so that they can be sent out to families of newcomer children from Eritrea.
New comers to Canada who fall under the refugee class of immigrants often belong to visible minority ethnic groups, they are poor, unskilled or under skilled ( having qualifications that often are not recognized by Canadian labor market), have no or little language skills in of Canada's official Languages and some times are physically, emotionally or psychologically impaired. Such factors render members of this group to be socially devalued in a way that risks exacerbating their vulnerability to life threatening situations. All the individuals, whose story is told in this paper, are personal acquaintances of myself and I have been involved in one way or another during their ordeals. However, for the purposes of this paper I will not be using their real names and other identifying elements may be disguised as needed.
In the following sections, I will provide formal definition of Social Devaluation and a brief explanations of my interpretations with regards to the concept of social devaluation. This would be followed with a section on my personal reaction to social devaluation with in the context of several tragic incidents that have taken place in the lives of a number of newcomer individuals that I had witnessed. This would hopefully demonstrate how newcomers are: relegated to low social status, rejected , encounter social and physical distantiation, are exposed to involuntary material poverty, have their lives wasted and suffer from the risk of brutalization and death making. The final section of this paper would include a conclusion summarizing the key points discussed in the paper. As far as possible, deliberate effort will be made to avoid judgment on the roles played by any organization involved.
Definition of Social Devaluation
The process of social devaluation is formally defined around negative perception of an individual or a group on account of being different from others in such a way that such difference is considered significant by a majority or a ruling segment of society. As such, the difference is negatively valued and hence the group or individual with such an attribute is socially devalued.
The negative values attached to certain forms of differences, hence can be interpreted as: where as the valued party earns respect, the devalued party is disrespected, where as the valued party is considered important, the devalued party is considered unimportant, where as the valued party is afforded opportunities, the devalued party is denied the same and so forth. In the context of the discussions in this paper, the set of attributes that are associated with newcomers to Canada who fall under the refugee class of immigrants include: Impairment, poverty, lack of desired skills and lack of linguistic proficiency in Canada's official languages. As the following section would demonstrate, this devalued group often ends up missing out on critical social services, skill development opportunities and personal and family well-being.
Personal Reaction to Social Devaluation
The following stories of personal tragedies speak volumes about the common life experiences of devalued groups in society. Often times racial discrimination or prejudice are the principal factors blamed for the suffering of devalued grouped that involve visible minorities. The fact that the concept of social devaluation is about the devalued party more than anything else makes it possible to appreciate the fact that devaluation, as a dysfunctional perception, is carried out by an intersection of groups outside of the devalued party in society. It is not only the institutions, schools or government agencies that the blame rests. Rather the family, ethnic and religious communities that the devalued party belongs to and individual social circles that they associate with have all some responsibility to bare.
Humiliation of a disabled refugee newcomer who had to travel by crawling on the street for lack of a wheel chair
A few years ago, in 2006, an Eritrean refugee who was privately sponsored by a family claiming to be his relatives, and is an amputee in both legs was discovered crawling across the street trying to travel to the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration council (Welcome Place) to seek an assistance. I was later Introduced to the gentleman, who will be referred to as Hassan here, to learn that he was unaware that his sponsors were obliged to cover for his expenses in order to to acquire a wheel chair and that it was unacceptable in Canada to be crawling in the street like that. He had barely spoke any English and was clearly made unaware of his rights. What is most surprising was though, the fact that he had passed through the airport without hardly anyone being concerned enough to investigate his situation.
Tubal ligation procedure administered on a refugee newcomer mother without the necessary diligence to have her understand the implication of such a procedure
Helen is a mother of four healthy young children. She came to Canada from refugee a camp in the Sudan and she is originally from war torn Eritrea. She arrived to Canada under government sponsored refugee class immigration with her husband and three children as a pregnant mother. When Helen entered labor she did not know who to call and dialed 911. She was taken to the Health Sciences Hospital's maternity ward to deliver a healthy baby boy. However, what had later became an issue of controversy was that despite her poor language skills, it was claimed that the physicians, based on her 'consent' administered a tubal ligation procedure for which she now claims she had not fully understood the implication of such a procedure meant that she would was not going to be able to conceive again. I had taken part in a failed mediation effort to broker peace with her husband as the issue had later caused a serious rift within her family. This example shows that most newcomers, as a devalued group, find themselves having decisions made for them with little or no regard to according them the opportunity to make a fully informed choices. Even though the professionals involved may have their reasons for taking this action, the very fact that Helen had to relay on a 911 call and deliver her baby alone speaks volumes as to the rejection as well as social and physical distantiation that are often life defining situations for a socially devalued individual.
A teenage refugee newcomer shot dead outside a 'drug den' in Winnipeg's downtown neighborhood barely four years after his arrival to Canada, having found himself entangled in a deadly gang war
This case is perhaps the most profoundly discomforting for me to talk about. I have known this family and their teenage son for some time prior to a tragic incident. I had also happened to be the main liaison between the police and the family following the brutal killing of their teenage son who was caught up in a gangland turf war. The boy, whom I would refer to as Peter, was enrolled in a junior high school in downtown Winnipeg school where the catchment area is known for violent gang related incidences.
The school that Peter attended had placed him in a Special Education classroom few months before his fatal encounter. I also happen to substitute in that classroom from time to time. It is clear to me that a number of the students in that classroom are initiated into the underground gang life. Peter started to change his behavior and habits dramatically. His parents, newcomers themselves, could not assess the situation due to their lack of awareness about the inherent dangers that are present in such deprived areas. Peter started to miss school and soon began to skip going home altogether. As his parents watched dumbfounded and in horror his escalating misbehavior, in a matter of few months he had gotten himself from a studious and well mannered young man into a behaviorally disturbed teenager repeatedly getting in trouble with the law.
In the summer of 2004, three and half years since Peter's arrival to Canada he was found fatally shot and staggering towards a house, which was known to the police to be a 'drug den' place, soaked in his blood. He died before arriving at the local Health Sciences hospital. Due to my closeness to the family, especially after the incident, I am aware of some of the details of the police investigation results into his killing. The issue attracted very little media attention and four of the perpetrators had eventually walked out free after the court hearing and one person had been sentenced to four years in jail minus time served and a chance of parole following his entering of a plea bargain. It is distressing to imagine how incredibly hard it is for the devalued party to get natural justice as we come to know it. The police investigation had essentially concluded that despite a confession and witness statement, they simply did not have strong enough evidence to go to full trial.
A community church across the other side of town
After many years of worshiping in various different churches that bore some commonality with the traditional Eritrean Coptic Orthodox church, Eritreans in Winnipeg have finally managed to purchase their own church building that opened its doors in late 2007. The church is named ST. Micheal's Eritrean Coptic Orthodox Church. It is located in the St. Vital neighborhood of the city of Winnipeg where many of Manitoba's Eritreans live.
The choice of location for the new church is, however, rather puzzling. For instance, most of the Eritrean community members who live in the St. Vital area have a mortgage, professional jobs, at least one family car and have been in Winnipeg for a long time. On the other hand, most of the Eritrean community members who live in the downtown area have little or no educational background, low paid employment, use public mode of transportation and are mostly newcomers or some have arrived long time ago but with significant disadvantage that limited their social and economic progress. If the church was intended to serve the community at large, one would expect it to be located closer to those with no transportation and be easily accessible by those in disadvantage. The reality is, however, the church is located too close to those with personal transport and too far for those without. This is clearly illustrative of the fact that the process of social devaluation penetrates deep into the fabric of social organization.
Conclusion
The newcomers to Canada include persons of refugee background who are sponsored to come to Canada through various governmental or non-governmental agencies. This group of individuals are often poor, with little or no recognized skills and poor language skills. These attributes are generally negatively valued by western society at large as well as with in local social network that individuals in this group belong. The concept of social devaluation doesn't institutionalize the problem but rather focuses on the actual life experiences of the devalued individual themselves. Where as it is easier to identify some demographic boundaries for issues of discrimination and prejudice that are common experiences of people from aboriginal or the visible minority background, social devaluation penetrates far deeper into the fabric of our social organization. And, hence it defines a one to many relationship that has the devalued individual or group on the one hand and a system of social forces working to undermine them on the other.
Currently, schools in Manitoba are enrolling an increasing numbers of children from a newcomer refugee homes. It is high time that clear and coherent policies are drawn to make effective provisions to these children that takes into account their strengths as individual learners and their struggles as members of a socially devalued group.